The annual free community festival at Tacoma Art Museum celebrating Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead, attracts all sorts of people who want to pay homage to loved ones who have died through art and music. This year’s celebration is Sunday.
Dia de los Muertos is close to Halloween, but it has none of the Western obsession with scariness and dripping blood. Occurring Nov. 1-2 (All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day in the Christian calendar), Day of the Dead is a joyful way to honor the dead through artistic expression such as papier-maché skulls and skeletons, cut paper hangings, decorated sugar skulls and flowers.
In partnership with Centro Latino and Proyecto MoL, TAM offers the biggest Day of the Dead celebration in town that also honors those artistic traditions. This year – TAM’s seventh – artists have been commissioned to create two tapetes (sand paintings) that fill the floor of the lobby. Upstairs are nearly 20 altars honoring passed loved ones created by community groups and individuals. It’s a tradition that unites people as the ofrendas (altars) often honor well-known victims, military members or entire segments of the population.
Throughout the day Sunday will be face painting, teen activities, a market in the lobby and plaza, sugar skull decorating in the art classroom upstairs, bottle-cap magnet making in the studio and a Dia de los Muertos video in the resource center. Visitors also will have a chance to check out (for free) the newly opened exhibit “Folk Treasures of Mexico.” It offers about 80 works of Mexican folk art from the Rockefeller Collection lent by the San Antonio Museum of Art: 8-foot-tall papier-maché devils, candelabras, tin paintings, miniature wooden toys and more.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.